Rogue to Victim: What Australia Sees in Julian Assange

The Unpunished: How Extremists Took Over Israel

After 50 years of failure to stop violence and terrorism against Palestinians by Jewish ultranationalists, lawlessness has become the law.

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This story is told in three parts. The first documents the unequal system of justice that grew around Jewish settlements in Gaza and the West Bank. The second shows how extremists targeted not only Palestinians but also Israeli officials trying to make peace. The third explores how this movement gained control of the state itself. Taken together, they tell the story of how a radical ideology moved from the fringes to the heart of Israeli political power.

PART I.
IMPUNITY

By the end of October, it was clear that no one was going to help the villagers of Khirbet Zanuta. A tiny Palestinian community, some 150 people perched on a windswept hill in the West Bank near Hebron, it had long faced threats from the Jewish settlers who had steadily encircled it. But occasional harassment and vandalism, in the days after the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, escalated into beatings and murder threats. The villagers made appeal after appeal to the Israeli police and to the ever-present Israeli military, but their calls for protection went largely unheeded, and the attacks continued with no consequences. So one day the villagers packed what they could, loaded their families into trucks and disappeared.

Who bulldozed the village after that is a matter of dispute. The Israeli Army says it was the settlers; a senior Israeli police officer says it was the army. Either way, soon after the villagers left, little remained of Khirbet Zanuta besides the ruins of a clinic and an elementary school. One wall of the clinic, leaning sideways, bore a sign saying that it had been funded by an agency of the European Union providing “humanitarian support for Palestinians at risk of forcible transfer in the West Bank.” Near the school, someone had planted the flag of Israel as another kind of announcement: This is Jewish land now.
Such violence over the decades in places like Khirbet Zanuta is well documented. But protecting the people who carry out that violence is the dark secret of Israeli justice. The long arc of harassment, assault and murder of Palestinians by Jewish settlers is twinned with a shadow history, one of silence, avoidance and abetment by Israeli officials. For many of those officials, it is Palestinian terrorism that most threatens Israel. But in interviews with more than 100 people — current and former officers of the Israeli military, the National Israeli Police and the Shin Bet domestic security service; high-ranking Israeli political officials, including four former prime ministers; Palestinian leaders and activists; Israeli human rights lawyers; American officials charged with supporting the Israeli-Palestinian partnership — we found a different and perhaps even more destabilizing threat. A long history of crime without punishment, many of those officials now say, threatens not only Palestinians living in the occupied territories but also the State of Israel itself.

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/16/magazine/israel-west-bank-settler-violence-impunity.html (for subscribers)

https://archive.md/x7KuY#selection-779.0-793.1079 (non paywall link)

Trump's indictment sets a concerning precedent for corrupt men everywhere

From The Chaser:

Dear readers,

America’s 45th president Donald J Trump was indicted just hours ago for taking classified and top secret documents to his residence in Mar-a-Lago, potentially setting an extremely concerning precedent of actually punishing powerful cis-white men for crimes.

Donald Trump was one of the world's best corrupt businessmen and pussy grabbers, people like that are the backbone of the entire political and justice system. If we set the precedent that men like him can be held responsible for their actions, who knows what sort of chaotic world that could cause?

This is the start of a very slippery slope. Indicting former presidents for federal crimes, what next, actually investigating powerful men for tax evasion, sexual assault or war crimes? Where does the madness end?

The US Justice Department claim to have found illegally held documents and recordings of Trump acknowledging that he was committing an alleged crime, but in his defence, who hasn’t stolen stationery supplies or classified information from work?

Here at The Chaser we hope that the system works as it was designed to and justice is served, where the powerful cis-white man gets away with whatever he allegedly did then gets to sue anyone who commented on the allegations, because clearly it is the journalists and random social media users who need to be punished.

https://mailchi.mp/chaser.com.au/trumps-indictment

Television was one of my first great loves...

I've still got Marquee Moon and Adventure on vinyl though I haven't listened to them for ages and don't have a turntable.

RIP Tom

Batshit moments in Australian Politics - Bob Katter and gay marriage...

Sovern Citizens - Internet Comment Etiquette

After 2 months of SovShits not complying and travelling, not driving in my city, this made me LOLx1000. Absolutely funny stuff...

Novak Djokovic Is Refused Entry Into Australia Over Vaccine Exemption

Source: New York Times

Novak Djokovic, the world’s No. 1-ranked men’s tennis player, traveled all day Wednesday from Dubai to Australia, a journey that was supposed to begin his defense of the Australian Open singles championship.

On Thursday, he was told he would need to leave the country, following a 10-hour standoff with government officials at a Melbourne airport, where he was held in a room overnight over the validity of his visa and questions about the evidence supporting a medical exemption from a coronavirus vaccine. The exemption was supposed to allow Djokovic, a 20-time Grand Slam tournament champion and one of the biggest stars in sports, to compete in the Australian Open even though he has not been vaccinated.

It was not immediately clear whether Djokovic would appeal the ruling in Australia’s courts. A spokesman for the tennis star did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The chain of events represented a startling turnabout for Djokovic, who in a little more than 24 hours went from receiving special, last-minute permission to enter Australia, to boarding an intercontinental flight, to essentially being told by the prime minister of Australia that he was not welcome in the country.

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/05/sports/tennis/novak-djokovic-australia-visa.html

I would have agreed about mountains until last weekend...

My new Golf GTI with its farting DSG transmission won me over. Lots of hairpin bends and stopping due to rockslides being repaired, but I felt I had a better grip on the road and more control of the GTI than I ever did with my old car with hits manual transmission. Then again, my old car was old and didn't have sports mode, while the GTI has sports mode and has like 8 gears. Plus it looks so cute and sporty! And I can hook my phone up and use Google Assistant to do the voicey thing!

Joy Division - Atmosphere

I think he's more cute and adorable than dapper...

You can't get any more cute and adorable than this. Pudsey's just the added bit of cuteness...



I just delved down into the battlefield of GD-P to bemoan the premature end of a really meaty bit of drama unfolding in one thread with the source of the drama being so cruelly booted with a hidden post. Damn the whole thing about being locked out of a thread before a good plot can develop. I expect my post bemoaning that will end up hidden. Good thing I only turn up here once every few months lately